Melissa Carloni - Triathlon | Germany
Read time:
12 minutes read
Interview by Ross Lovell
This is Fueled for a Year. Three amateur athletes, each with a unique goal on the horizon. One year of access to all that Maurten has, enabling them to be greater athletes. To achieve their goals.
This article will grow as Melissa progresses towards her start line. It’s a diary of check-ins throughout the year.
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In the amateur ranks, passion is the driving force of dedication. It’s unlimited. Time and resources, however, are not. Life is a complex and unpredictable interplay of family and work and the unforeseen that makes structure a challenge. We train and race around an unreliable routine. When we can, not always when we want. Nevertheless, we still aspire to be better. We still try. It’s not simply a devotion — it’s an addiction. Of the good sort. Every amateur watches the professional and, at some stage, wonders — what if? Maurten can’t give the gift of time or streamline the day in, day out by stripping away the layers of life. But we can offer the support of nutritional expertise and an ecosystem of specifically designed fueling products.
If you never try, you never fail. But it will not diminish the sense of regret. “I'll just try a triathlon. And I liked it a lot. I thought it was super cool that I can continue swimming, but then at the same time start something new. So I kept doing it and this year I did my first 70.3.” — Melissa Carloni.
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LOG 1 — introducing Melissa
LOG 2 – Building momentum
Typically, it’s the discipline that people struggle most with. Maybe are even fearful of. But Melissa is in the enviable position of coming into triathlon as a strong swimmer already. Years of synchronized swimming and life-saving events have equipped her with a good feel for the water. “To get better at swimming, I would need to train every day because I'm already, I think, at a level where it's hard to see large improvements. It's also the shortest part of the race, so that’s a bit sad for me.”
For Melissa, the challenges start after, as the race develops. As the body position moves through lying in the water, to sitting on the bike, and then upright for the run. Consuming the right fuel at the right time for three disciplines is hard. It puts a lot of strain on the gut and takes a lot of practice.
“I think I had this idea in mind that you should — and I now know this is the wrong idea — train your body and make it used to performing, even in hot conditions, with no food or with no nutrition. Because then when you get food on race day you are much stronger or much faster. That's the perception I had.”
It’s an honest admission of not knowing how to prepare. But we’ve probably all been there at some point — influenced by outdated protocol. The old school methods that die hard.
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The reality, supported by science, is that training our guts with certain amounts of sports nutrition decreases the likelihood of gastrointestinal distress on race day. GI discomfort is a significant inhibitor to performance. By fueling training with the right amount of carbohydrates per hour, our bodies can adapt and get used to it. It’s a well-trodden route into fueling. A rite of passage, almost.
“The first mistake I made was already in the preparation phase because I was not getting used to enough gels or carbs. I think in my mind I didn’t associate training with a need to fuel.”
It’s a well-trodden route into fueling. A rite of passage, almost.
You reap what you sow and inevitably Melissa’s first attempt at an IRONMAN 70.3 in Mallorca was a harsh reckoning. Her body providing acute feedback on the avoidance of fueling during training. “I was so excited because I’d spent so much time training for it. But my nutrition was so bad, The cycling part was great, but then I was completely sick. I had so much cramps, nausea, and all this kind of stuff. When my body left the sitting position (off the bike), I started feeling all these mixed stomach issues. I just thought I had to finish, no matter what. I will stop eating because it might get worse and I will just continue. But then I had a lot of pain everywhere. The run was not really a run. Overall, not the greatest experience.”
In the clarity of hindsight, it’s easy for Melissa to see where mistakes were made. But they are perfectly human mistakes. Errors everyone makes because racing can be intense. It clouds judgment and muddles rational thought. “On the bike I kind of deprioritized nutrition in a sense. I wasn’t drinking so much because even taking bottles every 5 minutes, I didn’t feel like I had time or I was too stressed for that. And of course, then I paid for it. I think that's also something I would need to practice.” The hyper-focused atmosphere of a race, when the mind and body are amped with adrenaline, is not something easily recreated in training. We give ourselves mindless instructions — I'll eat at the top of the climb, I'll eat when I stop next, or I'll eat when I catch the person ahead. Always fuel without delay.
Despite full-time work commitments that consume her diary from 9am until 6pm, Melissa is already learning from her experience in Mallorca. “I’ve already improved a lot. I did a half marathon in Copenhagen recently and it went well — much better than it was last year. So I think there is a big space for improvement, especially in cycling and running. I am not yet as fast as I could get.”
The year ahead will be a great opportunity for Melissa to master her own fueling strategy.
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“I guess everybody is different. Maybe I tolerate better some other kind of carbs but not solids. Or maybe it's better for me to drink a lot and not get so many gels. I have no idea — I'm completely new on that.”
It’s a position familiar to many. Melissa has listened to the noise and has been influenced by fueling advice that ultimately didn’t work. Fueled for a Year is a chance to learn what’s right on her terms.
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LOG 1 — introducing Melissa
LOG 2 – Building momentum
Throughout winter, Melissa reduced the pressure on racing and allowed herself to focus on the simplicity of building a strong base of fitness. With a new bike setup and new knowledge, she is looking to develop her training focus over the next four months.
Like many athletes across Europe, Melissa has been impacted by the weather.
“I don't like treadmills so much because, for me, running is my one hour of free time. It's the one hour when I can just shut my mind and go out. I don't really care if it's in the dark or in the rain. I just go out anyway. It's nice in Frankfurt because I can go along the river and it's always full of runners, so I'm not too afraid of that. Actually, I've been more troubled by the ice and the snow because in the last weeks it was very hard to find a day where you don't fall on the ice. Cycling I have to do inside on the turbo trainer because it's too cold to go out yet.”
Despite the challenging conditions, she remains positive and excited to start training with discipline and structure. And a half marathon in March will be a good test of how well she is already progressing towards the Ironman 70.3.
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Previously Melissa found it hard to eat the right things when training at awkward times around her long work hours. It’s something that the Maurten Nutrition Team have provided guidance on.
“Now I'm really structured and paying a lot of attention to what I'm eating — how much, and when. I'm also trying to note down how many grams per hour of carbohydrates I am having. I’m kind of starting from scratch.”
It was shortly into the run when Melissa’s race really unfolded last time, so she was keen to understand how to fuel the three disciplines of a triathlon while minimising stress in the stomach. “I think the part where I am more stressed in eating is running. So far I haven't done so many long runs to test, but I know I can support one or two gels easily, which I want to slowly improve. And especially I want to see how it goes with the new TT bars, because I now know that it can be a bit different to eat or drink with the body leaning further over on the bike.”
“I think some things have really opened my mind. For instance, I never thought about how to structure eating during the whole race. I always think I should take X grams per hour and it doesn't matter when. But now I will practice eating more in the first part of the race and maybe start decreasing during the end of the cycle because then my stomach and my gut can be ready to run. If I keep eating and eating at the end of the bike I have more risk of getting sick.”
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Melissa appreciates that practicing with her race day fuel over the next few months will be an important part of training. Each session is an experience that provides a little more knowledge to benefit race day.
“I am already starting like comfortably with 30 or 40 grams of carbohydrates, so I can hopefully easily go to 60 grams. But the Nutrition Team made an important point, that we don't have to have a goal in mind — it’s not that I need to necessarily reach 90 grams per hour.”
Again reinforcing the importance of a personalized approach to fueling. What works for another athlete may not work for Melissa. Ben Vriends, Maurten’s Global Education Manager, adds that, “working with ambitious amateurs is about helping them listen to their body and build confidence in fueling step-by-step. Introducing one small logical next step every time often makes the biggest difference over a long time."
Coming next:
In log 3 we will get a race report from Melissa’s first event of 2026 — a half marathon in Frankfurt — that will serve as an important test for how she is able to fuel on the run.
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LOG 3 — Melissa x Lucy Charles-Barclay
Our Fueled for a Year athletes have told their story, they’ve spoken with the Maurten Nutrition Team, and now it’s a chance to get real insights from the elite athletes. Melissa chatted with Ironman World Champion Lucy Charles-Barclay about how to balance three disciplines. Also a swimmer first, before discovering triathlon, Lucy was able to explain how having a superpower in the water enables her to be a stronger runner and cyclist too.
Melissa:
Being a swimmer my whole life, my lower body was not used to the impact of running. So I was always curious about your story and how it was for you to move from swimming to do also running and cycling?
Lucy:
My experience sounds very similar to you to be honest, making that jump. I had an incredible engine from being a swimmer that was almost a blessing and a curse. It allowed me to be able to be very cardiovascularly fit in cycling, which is fine. In cycling, you're pretty safe — if you push it a little bit too much, there's not really much that's going to happen. But in running, if you push that a little bit too far — and I was able to do that because of my engine — it would always lead to injuries. I’ve always found that the mindset in swimming is ‘more is better’. So, more and more and more training and you're going to get better. But you can't apply that to running. You have to be a lot smarter with run training and gradually build it up. You have to listen to your body. If it feels tired, then you probably should either change the run to an easy run or maybe substitute it for a different session — perhaps a bike ride instead, or an elliptical trainer or cross trainer. Something to get a similar stimulus, but not the impact of running. As swimmers, we're not used to the impact of running. It's non weight-bearing.
That said, I felt like the progress comes quite quickly because you're already really good at dedicating yourself to something and are very disciplined. You have this engine and you have this work ethic and triathlon rewards all of those things.
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LOG 4 — Lifestyle
LOG 3 – Melissa x Lucy Charles-Barclay
For the professionals, it’s easy — the sport is their lifestyle and their living. That’s what comes first. For our Fueled for a Year athletes, training for a sport is a balance. A complex interplay that carefully manages time, communication, relationships, and rest. To keep the scales roughly in equilibrium when opposing forces are trying to pull them in different directions takes patience and understanding. This is how Melissa controls the day in, day out demands of preparing for an IRONMAN 70.3 alongside the needs of work and her partner.
“I was laughing when you asked how do you balance your life, because I don't — I'm still struggling to find a way. For me, it's more about work, because I don't have kids.”
For Melilssa, accepting an imperfect situation as an amateur athlete is a healthy way of keeping on top of the work and life balance. “I know that if it's very busy at work, then it's going to be a bit less training this week. And then maybe I can cover for it next week or the next two weeks. So, I’ve kind of like made peace with myself on it. And I know that it will work out anyway.”
It’s the final few weeks that seem to apply the most stress. The race that felt like a long time away is suddenly imminent and every training moment feels crucial. Before, a missed session didn’t matter. Now it feels like every session matters most. “The most difficult part is actually trying to squeeze in training around work because I have one month before the race and it's now the peak training loads. I'm training 10 to 12 hours per week, which for me is a lot because then I'm also working 8 hours per day on top. I am a bit nervous now. I'm like, ‘oh, I should do more runs, I should do more cycling, and I should do more of everything’. It's good to have a plan.”
It’s important to remember that you can only influence your own destiny and what others are doing is neither relevant nor within your control. When it comes to endurance sport, every approach is personal.
“Maybe you should always try to look at yourself and what you do, and not what other people do. Sometimes, especially with social media, you tend to open Strava and see others who did a two-hour run and I did only one hour, and maybe I should have done more. It's not really something that we should do because we all have different lives and different levels.”
Communication is the keystone of success, for a house to function and meet the needs of everyone in it. “It's just me and my boyfriend and he's doing triathlons as well, so we kind of understand each other. Sometimes we train together, so that's also a chance to spend time together — if we go for a run or for a ride.” Knowing what the other person is going through — because you’ve been there yourself — helps to balance the roles and responsibilities. “I would say it's easier to understand each other, but then at the same time we try to do the same events or similar races. My biggest goal is in June and his biggest goal will be towards end of autumn, so we try to support each other knowing when one of us may be a bit more absent or a bit more under pressure. He's helping me a lot, just even cooking during the evening so if I come back very late from sports and I find the dinner ready it's already a big help.”
A supportive partner becomes an essential asset as race day nears. Not simply to do more heavy lifting with general chores, but also to tolerate the emotions, the fatigue, and the compromised sleep. “I am like a baby — I need to sleep so many hours. This is always a topic of conversation, because when I wake up and I don't have at least seven or eight hours, I feel very bad. I'm definitely feeling more tired, especially now that I stepped up the weekly training that I do. And I think it will be like this for the next two or three weeks. I try to rest as much as I can when I'm not training, so over the weekend I try not to squeeze in extra activities or chores that I can maybe just postpone or don't really have to do at the moment.”
And beyond the walls of her home, it is the sport of triathlon that has enabled Melissa to find a new social network. “I think at the beginning, when I started doing triathlon, that was really what changed my life because then I started having a hobby and I started having friends related to triathlon. I started having a little community of sports that we all do together. So I would say most of my friends here are actually triathletes or at least doing sports.” It has become a way for Melissa to feel connected. In a way, it is now more than a sport — it’s a lifestyle.
“I really have to say thanks. to triathlon or to sports in general, because when I moved here I was mostly alone.”
As the race approaches, Melissa is pragmatic about what this means to her and is careful not to feel overwhelmed by the situation. “In my case, it's not really pressure from Maurten itself. It's more like, what if I get injured or what if I cannot complete the race or I do it very poorly for some reason. It's like kind of a wasted opportunity. So I do have this pressure in a sense. But no real pressure in the sense of, what if I don’t go that fast? That’s fine — I don't have that kind of feeling.”
“It should remain something that we do for pleasure and especially that we do for ourselves. So if I want to push my limits, it should be my limits, not other people.” — Melissa Carloni
Interview by Ross Lovell
Melissa Carloni - Triathlon | Germany
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